A more inclusive society

Our Catholic social teaching compels us to speak out as part of this months National Migration Week for a more inclusive society that supports and respects all its residents. Despite the fact that Omaha has a rich heritage of welcoming newcomers, including immigrants, refugees and newly naturalized citizens, we find our city is facing a growing tendency in some who are viewing newcomers as burdens or suspects rather than individuals who are our sisters and brothers.

We are called to overcome a growing lethargy about this refugee crisis that includes failing to learn the facts and failing to use our voices and our votes for change in systems that continue to create unwelcoming systems.

In the spirit of the theme for this years Catholic National Migration Week, Promoting a Church and a World for All, we Notre Dame Sisters reject dismissing or isolating the stranger. Our current immigration system is morally broken, and so all of us need to advocate Congress for systemic reform that honors the innate dignity of all human persons.

Sister Margaret Hickey, Omaha

Why we need the wall

Anne Carroll, in the Jan. 10 Public Pulse, stated that the wall is a poor use of federal funds and we could better use the money to provide shelter for the homeless, stock food pantries, fund teacher pay raises and update aging bridges.

I agree with her when she says that not all illegal immigrants entering the U.S. are murderers. But some are, and she should ask the families of those citizens who have lost a loved one killed by an illegal immigrant if they agree with her.

We are a nation of laws. We may not agree with all of our laws but we have to obey them. And illegal immigrants entering the U.S. without permission or proper documentation have broken our laws, and that is not something to ignore.

Also, Ms. Carroll should understand that most of the illegal drugs consumed here in the U.S. come across that porous Southern border, contributing to our opioid crisis, which is costing our taxpayers billions each year.

The wall is costly but necessary.

Electoral College has value

The gentleman from Ogallala (Electoral College failures, Jan. 9 Public Pulse) should review his civics lessons. The U.S. is a democratic republic and not just a democracy. Would you like the government to be run by the states of California and New York? Under a pure democracy, those states having the largest population would always control election outcomes.

Give our forefathers some credit.

Trump is a disaster

In response to Sharon Struves Jan. 10 Pulse letter, Ill quote Rev Martin Luther King: Nothing is more dangerous than sheer ignorance. A good example of that is actually thinking Democrats are angry because Trump won no, theyre angry because hes stupid and he illustrates that on a daily basis.

I did not realize that it was a presidential duty to spend one day out of three days at his properties, and one out of five at his golf courses, spending enormous sums of taxpayer money for the travel and security of his family to do so. Or that before he could get us out of these endless wars, hed feel compelled to commit murder to start another one.

He has insulted our allies, imposed tariffs that will come out of our pockets, kissed up to all the dictators that he actually thinks like him and made us the laughing stock of the world! Democrats, erstwhile, have passed hundreds of pieces of legislation that are still sitting on the desk of Mitch McConnell instead of being put up for a vote.

Try a little fact-checking. Our congressional delegation is already doing a bang-up job of spouting ignorance all by themselves.

Threat to gun rights

On Jan. 8, State Sen. John McCollister of District 20 introduced into the new session of the Nebraska Legislature Legislative Bill 816 to Provide for information and training on firearm safety and suicide prevention and place restrictions and requirements on certain transfers of firearms. On Jan. 10 this bill was forwarded to the Judiciary Committee for consideration and review.

In reading this bill, I am struck as to how similar it is to the bills in front of the Virginia Legislature. Was LB 816 introduced here in Nebraska at the behest and support of Michael Bloomberg, active in promoting gun control, as were the bills in Virginia? What will Senator McCollister gain by introducing this bill?

It may be time for the good citizens of Nebraska to begin the establishment of 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries in our cities and counties as a mechanism to stave off these totalitarian enactments that do nothing but criminalize honest, law-abiding citizens.

Republican Party led astray

I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose voters, stated President Trump. In order to distract attention from his impeachment process he caused the murder of a high-level Iranian government official and further solidified Ayatollah Ali Khameneis political support base. Indirectly, Trump caused the death of 176 people on the commercial plane flight out of Tehran.

And sure enough, Trumps support base seems strong as ever, even from Republican senators who will soon be faced with the greatest ethical/moral issue of their lives: to vote based on facts for removal of Trump from the presidency.

If Trump is permitted to stay in office, this is a huge turning point in the more than 200-year political experiment to determine whether people, through their representatives in government, can control their country. Once our freedoms, especially of the press, our Constitution and our system of laws have been breached by the president, there will be no turning back.

I say, Weep not for me, an old man (age 87) if Trump remains in office, but for my children and their children. The Republican Party of Lincoln will be banished from history.

William A. Pettinger, Cumberland, Iowa

Gambling concerns

I am disappointed to see Omahans urging the state to legalize gambling in order to capture local money that supposedly is flowing into neighboring Iowas casinos.

Unfortunately, they are laboring under a widespread misconception, because casino profits do not remain in local economies. Instead, they flow out of state to major gambling corporations. Actually, casinos are more likely to hurt than help a states economy.

Most casinos draw their customers from within a 50-mile radius. The money they lose is money that wont go to local merchants, restaurants and gamblers families. All the problems associated with gambling would likely increase.

According to an article in the Atlantic magazine entitled A Good Way to Wreck a Local Economy: Build Casinos, No one should look to the gambling industry to revive cities because thats not what casinos do.

The article continues: As casino expansion reaches its limits, the towns and cities that turned to gambling to escape their problems may discover that they have accepted a suckers bet local economies that look worse than ever, local residents tempted into new forms of self-destructive behavior and a dwindling flow of cash to show for it all.

Also, casinos dont encourage non-gambling businesses to open nearby, because the people who most often visit casinos do not wander out to visit other shops and businesses.

Truly, gambling is a suckers bet for Nebraskans.

Bob Copperstone, Wahoo, Nebraska

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The Public Pulse: Immigration policy; Gun rights; Gambling concerns - Omaha World-Herald